Successors of Orleans Levee Board bury hatchet over tax millage

State Bond Commission commission told the 2 groups to work together to come up with a compromise

The bickering boards that oversee flood protection in the New Orleans area and manage the nonflood assets, like Lakefront marinas, have agreed to terms in a deal that will allow both to get behind a proposal to seek a new 30-year 6.07-mill property tax this fall. Officials of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East, which manages hurricane and flood protection, and officials from the Non-Flood Protection Asset Management Authority, have worked out a tentative agreement and are expected to make a joint pitch to the State Bond Commission to place the item on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Both sides said that the flood protection authority would get 5.46 mills of the tax, roughly $12.5 million a year, according to Tim Doody, president of the flood protection authority. He said the nonflood asset group will get .61 mills, which will generate about $1.4 million a year.

The new millage would extend the existing one for 30 years, from 2016 to 2045.

By law, the bond commission panel must approve millage elections and other local issues for the ballots. State Treasurer John Kennedy, the chairman of the commission, has scheduled a special meeting for Monday at 10 a.m. to take up the election.

The commission met Aug. 16 and refused to approve the millage election, telling the two sides to work together to come up with a compromise. The flood authority had proposed using all 6.07 mills and cut the nonflood asset authority out of any part of the new property tax.

The former Orleans Levee Board used to manage flood protection and nonflood assets, including two marinas, rental property and Lakefront Airport. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Legislature created one agency to devote its attention to flood-control issues and a second one to look into managing, leasing or selling the nonflood assets.

Robert Lupo, who oversees the nonflood asset group, said the board will have to continue to "tighten its belt" and possibly generate more revenue from its existing assets. The agency received $700,000 last year and this year from the flood protection authority to help manage the nonflood assets, including the green area along Lakeshore Drive. That money runs out June 30, 2013.

The nonflood asset management agency could seek state capital construction dollars or attempt to generate additional revenue from the properties it runs.